Arts Disticts in Beijing and Urban Development

In Beijing, the creation of Dashanzi or 798 Arts District illustrates the cultural and economic influences of urban image and post-industrial development on Chinese society, where plural efforts to preserve the respective industrial area and to use cultural policy to project a global city image reflect the effects of concomitant gentrification on contemporary China (Currier 2008: 237). Even though the cultural districts of Paris in the 1880s, London in the 1920s, and New York in the 1960s have been extensively researched, their emergent counterparts in Mumbai (Harris 2005), Mexico City (Hooks 1998), and Beijing (Currier 2008: 237; Tan 2005) are yet to be sufficiently researched especially in the context of urban transition from industrial production to cultural consumption that Beijing's more than twenty arts spaces cater to in what amounts to China's political and cultural capital rivaling other global cities in size, reach and vibrancy (Robinson 2004). In the process of Beijing's rapid growth, Dashanzi or 798 Arts District has gained prominence in China after a former military factory was reclaimed by art galleries, studio lofts. fashionable restaurants and cultural enterprises in a show of economic power increasingly being recognized to exist behind cultural districts making headway as Chinese society becomes more plural (Currier 2008: 238).

Rather than following a global trend, arts districts in China derive from its still nascent post-industrial transition bearing the marks of a distinct form of Chinese modernity (Friedmann 2006) that translated into urban change reveals that Beijing's 798 contributes to urban promotion as a consequence of transition from artistic enclave to cultural showcase as contemporary culture becomes more influential in Beijing as a global city (Currier 2008: 238). Starting in the late twentieth century, the current wave of economic globalization emphasizes service industries in urban centers (Harvey 1989; Sassen 1998, 2000, 2001) that play a role in in the structural and spatial reorganization of industrial and cultural production (Hutton 2004) that in Beijing's case resulted in growing private sector, decreasing regulation, and cultural liberalization (Currier 2008: 238-239). As China's provinces and cities evolved from a vertical decision-making structure towards greater autonomy, their local enterprises, inter-urban competition and development promotion grew (Ma and Wu 2005), as international airports, business districts, and technology zones became means for their promotion as global cities (Wu 2006) that over time became complemented with museum construction and cultural events, such as Beijing's official recognition of 798 as an important cultural asset (Currier 2008: 239).

To market themselves as unique, cities project distinctiveness by offering urban environments expressive of a creative city image (Currier 2008: 239) and made from appealing bar, cafe, club, restaurant, gallery and design districts whose artists and bohemians attract people and capital (Florida 2002; Lloyd 2006), at the same time as these not unquestionable creative strategies (Malanga 2004; Peck 2005) fending off the effects of de-industrialization (Hall 2000) respond to inter-urban competition, gentrification trends, consumer economy, and place marketing (Peck 2005) in hopes of increased tax revenue, city image promotion (Cameron and Coaffee 2005) and stimulated cultural demand (Wyly and Hammel 2005). China's arts districts demonstrate its globalization that, as opposed to West-driven and homogenizing McDonaldization (Ritzer 2007), imaginatively interprets global themes in local terms as they apply to urban economy and cultural consumption developing within particular situations and local politics, such as growing supply of real estate and new demand patterns (Currier 2008: 239-240). As the cultural and economic sides of the post-industrial transition redefine cities as sites where intangible commodities are increasingly produced (Scott 1997, 2000), their branding strategies, combined with China's joint trends of conspicuous consumption and spectacular architecture (Wu 2007) favoring land development replacing underperforming state-owned enterprises, represent, valorize, reproduce and sell cultural areas (Kearns and Philio 1993) dependent for their appeal on international associations, historic emulation, and futuristic design with contemporary art anchoring these developments in high-value cultural consumption characteristic of global cities (Currier 2008: 240; Yeoh 1999).

Though behind Beijing's branding are its rising property market, search for global recognition and desire for international prestige (Currier 2008: 240), civic boosterism and local pride also play a role in its efforts to emphasize ancient past and global future over the legacy of socialism (Broudehoux 2004). By laying stress on their real estate and cultural consumption value, arts districts run the risk of excessive commercialization and limited appeal (Zukin 1995) that commodify culture without trying to avoid turning it into predictable, simplified and themed environments (Zukin 1991), where sentimental manipulation, familiar imagery and sanitized representations leave little place for authentic, avant-garde and sophisticated culture (Currier 2008: 240-241). Beijing's image always bore the marks of cultural and political relations (Samuels and Samuels 1989) that from the time of its inception within the Confucian framework of ritual and belief have defined the urban space according to the principles that privileged orientation to the center, major axes and geometry of this city as an expression of the corresponding social order in spatial terms (Currier 2008: 241). After 1949, the People's Republic continued the practice of symbolic use of urban space as the former Imperial Palace has remained at the center of the capital city where a new social order was built through efforts to decentralize the hierarchical urban pattern by expanding the city into dispersed industrial areas that wide boulevards integrated into a concentric urban layout (Courrier 2008: 241).

Beijing's urban design remains dominated by the Imperial Palace as the nearby Tiananmen Square became associated with public events that the Communist state organized (Currier 2008: 241-242; Hou 1985). Presently, however, Beijing is on the heels of its fast and comprehensive social, economic and cultural change following on market reforms that pushed it into the ranks of global cities vying to attract capital flows gravitating towards technology, media and consumption districts epitomized by proliferating skyscraper, shopping mall, and high-end residential developments that nevertheless benefit from arts districts, such as 798, in their mix adding to the city's global image as a growing cultural destination (Currier 2008: 242). Not far from the embassy quarter and the international business district, Beijing's 798 was originally conceived as a one square kilometer industrial complex in the city's Chaoyang district that hosted the largest and most expensive factory cluster in Asia built on Sino-Soviet funds by East Germany for military purposes that by the early 1990s lost two thirds of its labor force becoming ripe for a post-industrial reinvention by new occupants (Currier 2008: 242-243). From the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese contemporary artists flocked to Beijing's artist colonies at its fringes gaining by mid-1990s in international recognition as art school professors and students attracted by its affordable rents and Bauhaus architecture set up studios in 798 that became a marketing asset for cultural entrepreneurs who spurred its rapid development after it hosted its first international exhibition in 2002 in what became a trendy district of over a hundred galleries interspersed with cafes, nightclubs, restaurants and offices with increasing real estate value (Currier 2008: 243-244).

To secure 798's future, artists residing there had to legalize their makeshift status (Ambrozy 2006a) within the framework of an urban development plan that would replace its further industrial development with its preservation as a creative industries area aiming to boost global reputation of Beijing and to tap into international art market (Currier 2008: 244-245). In a relatively short time span, 798 Arts District turned itself from a location on an underground arts scene into an international destination with the help of grassroots involvement, global influences, and bottom-up policy-making (Currier 2008: 245). From an artist community where affordable rents, spacious lofts, and outlying location made it possible to stage exhibitions, 798 developed into a cause for activism as artists organized to oppose demolitions of its architectural heritage (Bernell 2006) by intensifying exhibition activity, founding an advocacy group, and promoting free artistic expression that led to the establishment of the independent Dashanzi International Art Festival and to the publication of Beijing 798 describing the district at book length, which significantly increased the coverage it received from domestic and international media resulting in listing in guide books, blogs and international journals (Currier 2008: 245).

798's integration into Beijing's urban development plans was not without resistance in the form of lease restrictions, access disruptions, and activity limits that it had to overcome in order to establish its reputation of an avant-garde outpost (Currier 2008: 245). Grassroots efforts playing a minor role in 798's preservation, it is foreign representatives' attention to the arts area as an indicator of China's opening up (Angremy 2006), such as that of European Union's officials, and presence of international art galleries, such as Chinese Contemporary, the White Space, and Beijing-Tokyo Art Projects, that from 2004 onwards brought foreign art investment and international institutional discourse to bear on the city government's management of the area (Currier 2008: 245-246; Lily 2006). The key turning point in 798's preservation was 2004 election of sculptor Li Xiangqun into the People's Congress where he initiated the promotion of creative industries with the help of government funding amounting to US$62.5 million in 2005 (Currier 2008: 246) and the official designation of 798 as a creative business area among ten others in Beijing the next year (Li 2006), while making a special financial arrangement with owners of the district's property (Muynck 2007).

798's preservation was connected with creation of a municipal advisory committee in charge of cooperation with private bodies to further promote their support of the arts (Liu 2006) through festivals and events sponsorship (Currier 2008: 246), even though real estate profits extraction by development companies (Fu 2006) continued to take precedence over promising educational initiatives in the arts area, such as a proposal for an international architectural learning center (Manguarian and Ray 2006). However, 798's official status comes at a price of uncertainty over the extent and character of governmental involvement (Huang 2006) in keeping the economic conditions that initially attracted artists to the area, in preserving and improving the physical infrastructure of the district, and in refraining from putting limits on artistic freedom (Currier 2008: 246-247), as official oversight and registration requirements are enacted (Fu 2006; Liu 2006). Integrated into city government and real estate development plans, 798 continues to attract international interest ensuring through information technology and mass media that it retains its primary mission as an arts district (Currier 2008: 247) serving as a hot spot for tourists and investors reacting to Beijing's recognition as a global city increasingly capable of enabling local actors to successfully act on a wide variety of scales (Sassen 2004).

An outgrowth of an unofficial initiative initially, 798 is cited by government officials as a unique representation of the rise of China's contemporary cultural industries brought to their present-day success by its growing economy (Currier 2008: 247), while harking back to Beijing's ancient cultural traditions (Li 2006). After a period of preferential treatment of economic development over the needs of historical preservation in Beijing and Shanghai (Currier 2008: 247-248), 798's international renown and municipal cultural policy gave an impetus to China's emerging cultural strategy that saw more than twenty new museum or arts districts created and the Beijing International Art Biennale launched (Napack 2004), as part of Beijing's overhaul before the 2008 Olympics intended to market it as a tourist destination (Fu 2006). But the protected status of 798 implies official encroachment on artistic freedom (Currier 2008: 248) when exhibitions at and residence in the district take place within the framework of governmental regulation gaining influence not only on contemporary culture but also over urban space (Broudehoux 2004). Arts districts benefit from growing recognition of their investment value driven by the success of local contemporary art drawing on imagery and references of better recognized trend-setting locations, such as New York's SoHo (Currier 2008: 248).

As opposed to previous artist colonies, it is its professionalization that saved 798 from demolition as its artists participated in making it an integral part of Beijing's contemporary art scene by turning the district into a destination for sale and exhibition of artworks (Currier 2008: 248). Chinese contemporary art used 798's rise to international prominence creating a stable relationship between art production and the district's preservation for achieving heightened visibility, reaching international art market, and becoming exhibited at art museums and biennials, which led to steeply increasing prices at international auctions as artists' status rose together with their reputation, income, and influence (Currier 2008: 248-250). The financial viability of art districts spawned numerous other areas that improve on the model of 798 by being thoroughly planned, by offering differentiated rents, and by redeveloping other industrial spaces (Currier 2008: 250-251), as similar initiatives are being successfully launched in other cities, such as Shanghai and Harbin, where similar struggles for historical preservation and international visibility play out (Li 2006). 798's success expanded the pool of contemporary artists with resulting distinction into an avant-garde and underground period before 2000 (Connolly 2006) and more market-oriented art mixing established genres (Ambrozy 2006b), as official recognition and commercial publicity make Chinese contemporary attractive for a growing number of private collections and museums established or based in China, such as Ullens Center in 798 (Currier 2008: 251-252).

Galleries, bookshops and cafes transformed 798 into a mainstream location attracting tourist crowds, art aficionados, academic circles and corporate presence increasing the real-estate value of this district that might attract projects involving either spectacular architecture or Western museums (Angremy 2006), while dividing opinions on the eventual place of culture and art in China and on the growing role of urban development in urban culture in Beijing (Currier 2008: 252). Yet, the imminent gentrification of 798 may have positive consequences (Currier 2008: 252) as long as it contributes to creation of a mixed-use neighborhood (Mars 2006), as is apparently the intention of the city government as it tries to balance pressures to commercialize the district with urban revitalization driven by lifestyle diversity and arts scene (Chen 2006b) that easily erode when uniqueness of the place wears away through widespread imitation or excessive development (Peck 2005). That 798 consciously models itself on Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum area, London's East End, or New York's Chelsea does not reduce its need, however, to differentiate itself from other districts both in Beijing and globally in pursuit of branding strategy initiated by local artists and carried on by China's officials (Currier 2008: 253).

The urban identity of the district became rapidly commodified through its ubiquitous branding, as 798 started to cater to the bohemian sensibilities of the post-industrial recuperation of its Bauhaus architectural style as the former military factory became a launching pad for corporate marketing and image-making campaigns (Currier 2008: 253-254). From the outset, artists, as the visibility of the district rose, either replaced or combined artist studios with gallery and business spaces to make their activity in 798 financially sustainable (Ting 2006) at the same time as they became more entrepreneurial, as business- or restaurant-owners, in their approach to the traditional Western contradiction between creativity and profitability (Ley 2003) in their transition from avant-garde to mainstream that in China passed through commercialization and commodification of art (Currier 2008: 254). As opposed to the case of London's South Bank, in the absence of district planning or preservation laws for industrial heritage 798 grew from grassroots initiative following from the post-industrial sensibilities of artists and entrepreneurs (Currier 2008: 254) that were rooted in their stays in analogous lofts in New York City, London, Berlin or Tokyo, in their partnerships with established art galleries from renowned art districts in these cities, and in their desire to recreate the atmosphere of legacy industrial spaces reclaimed for contemporary cultural uses (Angremy 2006).

Attaining official status embedded the production and reproduction of the brand of 798 into the promotional media circuits aimed at raising financial and cultural profile of Beijing and China that run the risk of reducing the district to another representation of Chinese cultural heritage circulating far from its anti-traditional positioning, cultural sensibility, and local meaning (Currier 2008: 255). As an alternative to conventional real estate projects , 798 pioneered industrial heritage preservation and culture-driven urban development (Liu 2004) that taking inspiration from London's Tate Modern and SoHo, Paris' Museum d'Orsay and similar museums elsewhere references Beijing's past efforts at industrialization as everyday life of factory workers improved during Mao's time setting it apart from the imperial history of the Forbidden City (Currier 2008: 255). As part of China's modernization drive (Mars and de Waal 2004), Beijing's growing stress on its modern culture showcases the reorganization of its urban space towards contemporary artworks, coffee houses and modern bookshops that mark urban hot spots, such as 798, incorporating diverse forms of modern heritage into the changing landscape of Chinese contemporary art going through the dynamic transition from avant-garde underground to commercialized commodity attracting tourists and investors (Currier 2008: 255-256).

Under the spotlight of local and global attention, Chinese contemporary art and 798 are involved in the rapid urban change Beijing goes through as its both ancient and modern past becomes consigned to museums documenting social, artistic and architectural history likely changing the character of its arts districts to that of tourist- and mainstream-oriented compounds of flagship brad stores, luxury apartments and high-end office spaces as a possible future of this city's gentrification (Currier 2008: 256). However, the gentrification of 798, apart from its apparent signs of rent increase and resident affluence, has traits specific to its Chinese context that exceeds a narrow definition of gentrification (Smith 2002), while demanding identification as a distinct form of urban change (Currier 2008: 256). Theoretical approaches to gentrification describe it in terms of interplay of culture and class in the process of urban revitalization (Cole 1987; Ley 1996; Smith 1986, 1996; Smith and Williams 1986) as artistic appeal becomes commodified for the purposes of capital investment into undervalued city quarters that responding to changing patterns of cultural consumption (Hamnett 1991; Beauregard 1986) brings wealthy residents, real estate speculation, and cultural visibility to formerly decaying urban cores, while 798's case differs from this Western pattern in its non-central location, low residential density, and lacking displacement conflicts (Currier 2008: 256-257).

Whereas art-led gentrification presupposes an art scene as a factor in revitalization of inner cities (Cole 1987; Ley 2003), 798 corresponds to a neo-bohemian transformation of a neighborhood not by avant-garde artists but by entertainment and commerce (Lloyd 2006) that embed aesthetic value into the operation of property development, gourmet restaurants, and cultural economy (Currier 2008: 257) that cater to incoming or visiting rather then resident individuals who contribute in their turn to subsequent urban restructuring and renewal (Rubino 2005). As opposed to its conventional definition being dependent on resident displacement (Slater 2006), the gentrification of 798 takes place with cafes, galleries and workshops existing side by side (Currier 2008: 257), while capital holders and residing artists largely steer the structural change the neighborhood goes through in the wake of Beijing's economic transition (Chen 2006a). As opposed to gentrification in Western cities (Smith 1996), in 798 rather than being displaced informal markets grow (Currier 2008: 257-258), former workers benefit from factory leases, and contemporary artists gain access to art market (Cang 2006). Far from a natural phenomenon of urban development, the gentrification of 798 is a historical process with unique economic, social, and historical characteristics (Smith 1986) that are dissimilar across its cases globally that only begin to be addressed critically in scholarly literature (Atkinson and Bridge 2005; Sykora 2005) as it grapples with its cultural and national contexts where urban change reflects global trends (Currier 2008: 258-259).

Positioning of the cause of historical preservation of 798 within the context of global comparison with New York's SoHo (Zukin 1989) succeeded because of the wide recognition of the latter (Currier 259-260). Following on the use of Western references for place branding, 798's case is comparable to New York's Lower Manhattan in its repurposing of former industrial premises for art uses mainly because the latter similarly was at the epicenter of a public campaign to block a financial area development in favor of its historical preservation in 1971, which as an art district eventually attracted capital flows as did 798 possibly heading towards gentrification on SoHo's model (Currier 2008: 260-261), as Beijing seeks to claim its status as a world or global city (Li 2003: 32). Gentrification referring to urban space that increasingly caters to cultural consumption is far from being a universal course of urban development of global cities around the world, as local situations have as much bearing as do global trends on urban change that for 798 is uniquely defined by its preservation agents, off-center location, and displacement absence within the framework of Beijing's more general efforts to harness culture for burnishing of its global image and diversification of its economic base (Currier 2008: 261).

Capturing the growing importance of culture in China and its cities, 798 illustrated the role that coherent representation of urban space (Zukin 1995) can play in deciding power struggles over it as did artists' success in redefining old factories as an art district that appealed to more affluent sensibilities, global market, and plural society that were taking root in Beijing (Currier 2008: 261). Making a transition from production-oriented economy to consumer- and culture-driven development, China is yet to have its own history of urban gentrification that as in SoHo may bring in its wake luxury apartments, brand-name boutiques, tourist crowds, and famous art galleries (Currier 2008: 261), while following its own path from avant-garde and grassroots beginnings to particularly Chinese post-industrial globalization (Wu 2007). 798 offers an insight into the impact of culture on urban policy in China as an unofficial initiative for historical preservation changed urban planning norms, attracted international media attention, and diversified Beijing's economic development, which though leading to district's official control, uniform appearance and commercial exploitation sets it apart as a site of industrial heritage of the 20th century that received a rare acknowledgment due to the iconic status of Chinese contemporary art creating market for other cultural areas, circumventing top-down policy-making, and encouraging cultural influences on urban policy (Currier 2008: 262).